President Donald Trump is pulling out all the stops in his latest efforts at trying to make the Jeffrey Epstein uproar among his MAGA base go away. His latest ploy? Accusing former President Barack Obama and top Democratic officials of “treason” in a wild conspiracy related to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“This is the worst conspiracy I’ve ever heard in my life,” host Abby Phillip said to her panelists Wednesday on CNN’s NewsNight.
Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, last week called on the Justice Department to prosecute Obama and other officials for participating in a so-called “treasonous conspiracy” related to the 2016 presidential election.
In a newly unclassified report, Gabbard accused Obama and others of manipulating and withholding key information related to Russian meddling in order to make Trump look bad.
Gabbard said Friday she’s providing intelligence to the Department of Justice “to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve,” Politico reported.
Then Trump accused Obama of “treason” both in a social media post Monday and again Tuesday in the Oval Office during a trade meeting with Philippines leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Phillips tried to get right-wing analyst Scott Jennings to “back up” assertions about Trump’s wacky claims.
“How on earth would Democrats have been trying to take down Trump with documents they never used to take down Trump?” Phillip asked.
“They crippled almost his entire first term by convincing one half of the country that Russia stole the 2016 election,” Jennings shot back.
“But where is the Democrat conspiracy on this issue?” Phillip asked again.
“Here’s the deal. There’s no conspiracy and there’s no story,” Jennings admitted. Jennings then goes on to cite a Fox News poll showing Trump’s approval rating sinking, but supposedly not over Epstein.
“The scandal is this, that high ranking Democrats abuse their intelligence positions to try to convince half the American people and one entire political party that Russia stole the 2016 election and they succeeded today. It is an article of faith among Democrats.,” Jennings insisted.
Phillip pressed him on it. “How did they — I think, Scott, you have to actually back that up. How did they do that in your opinion? I mean, you’re alleging that there was a conspiracy led by Obama to say that Russia changed the votes, which they did not say. So, what are you talking about exactly?”
“No, I’m telling you that the program was this. They were shocked that Donald Trump won the election. They couldn’t believe it. And so, these people, I don’t know who is responsible for it ultimately, but it deserves investigation,” Jennings said as he floundered around trying to defend Trump.
Former Bill Clinton aide Keith Boykin wasn’t let Jennings’ inconsistencies fly. “Wait a minute. Just a minute ago, but you were saying The Wall Street Journal —,” Boykin interjected.
“Why don’t you let me finish?”, Jennings fired back. Ultimately his point was that the Democrats wanted the “American people to believe that it was an illegitimate president. That was the point.”
“Who are “these people?” Phillip reiterated.
Then Caroline Downey with the conservative-leaning National Review claimed Obama was “the architect” of a “hoax,” but was also unable to back up the falsehoods when pressed and was left like a deer in a headlight.
Downey went on to claim “that Obama was indeed the architect of the Russian collusion hoax — because he fed fake intelligence to the media.”
A perplexed Phillip’s responded, “Well, hold on. What exactly was he the architect of?”
“He’s — he’s the one who gave the — his — his officials gave the assessment to the media that was derived from the discredited Steele dossier,” said Downey.
When pressed to offer what the assessment said, Downey was lost but Phillip wasn’t backing down.
“No. What did it actually say? Not what is it derived from. What did it actually say? What was the conclusion of the I.C. assessment?”
Multiple intelligence agencies did find that Russia did meddle in the election on Trump’s behalf.
And Trump’s accusations that Obama committed “treason” are so serious that the former President issued a rare rebuke of Trump’s silly antics this week.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a week attempt at distraction.”
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